Wine room floor made with "Wine Infusion"-style recycled wine barrel wood flooring. The oak planks feature coloration where the wine came in contact with the wood.

It’s not unreasonable to think of this as upcycling, since the flooring is a higher-value product with a longer useful life. Oak is a desirable flooring material and is also preferred by vintners for the benefits it imparts to the wine. However, vintners don’t like to reuse the oak barrels, so after they have been used once, there is not much use for them. Making flooring from this wood makes wonderful sense — the character gained from its use as a wine barrel is an advantage, not a liability.

Fontenay offers three different styles of wood for its range of products. The Cooperage collection is made using barrel ends and features printed numerals and other coopers marks, which add character to the wood. The Wine Infusion line is made from the interior of the barrels, with staining from the wine altering the coloration. The Stave line has marks from the metal banding which wrapped the barrels, giving the wood a distinctive patterning.